Forest lose appeal against £750,000 fine for Stuart Atwell Tweet

Nottingham Forest have been unsuccessful with their appeal against a £750,000 fine imposed for a social media post which criticised Premier League official Stuart Attwell.

Forest published the post last April after a defeat to Everton in the Premier League, a match where the east midlands club felt they were denied three clear penalties.

Forest's post said they had "warned" referees' body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) that Attwell, who was the VAR for the match, was a fan of their relegation rivals Luton, but that "they did not change him", adding: "Our patience has been tested multiple times."

A regulatory commission issued a £750k fine last October, with Forest immediately indicating their intention to appeal, arguing the punishment was "disproportionate".

The Football Association had been seeking a punishment of at least £1million for what it described as an "egregious, direct and public attack" on Attwell and an attack on referees in general "on an unparalleled scale".

The FA confirmed on Monday that an appeal board upheld the original sanction and had ordered the post to be taken down. The link to the post on X was not working on Monday morning, though the club did not immediately confirm it had been taken down.

The appeal board said in its written reasons: "The (original) commission was entitled and right to give very considerable weight to the need for deterrence and the fact that NFFC had no mitigation. The lack of mitigation was particularly striking. The post has never been taken down.

"That puts into context NFFC's reliance on the second and third posts on which it relies as somehow mitigating the damaging effect of the first post. The Commission was not impressed by this. Nor are we. The fact is that NFFC has never apologised for the tweet and has never accepted that it committed an offence."

Forest have been contacted for comment.

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